My Quest To Burning Man 2014, Pt #1

[Calamity2014]

It All Started With A Box...



(That's Not True But It Sure Is A Pretty Rad Box!)

When My Friend Andrew And I Decided To Go To Burning Man Next Year The Most Obvious Obstacle In Our Way Was, As It Is For Most, Cash.
Not Having Enough Of It.
Not Being Able To Save It.
Having Other Things We "Needed".
Bills.
ect ect ect...
I Could Go On For Days With Various Excuses As To Our Issues Attaining And Keeping These Scraps Of Paper.

Our Solution?

The Burn Box Pictured Above!
It's A Steel Box With A Slot Only Big Enough For Money.
I Can Not Get Into It Without Andrews Help.
(His Is Based More Off The Honor System, Andrew's The Most Honorable Person I Know!)

On Top Of Not Being Able To Open It, It Puts Me Completely And Utterly In Control Of My Burning Fate.
A Scary, Yet Oddly Satisfying Emotion To Be In.

Since I Retrieved My Box From Andrew Life Has Become More Positive.

The Box Lives On My Nightstand Right Next To My Side Of The Bed. I've Adorned It With Various Positive Items, A Lava Lamp, Some Quartz,A Satchel Of Lavender, A Tigers Eye Stone And A Bracelet An Eight Year Old Made Me..
lol

I Stuff Money In It As Often As Possible.
(not minuscule amounts either)

Seeing It Every Day Has Been A Reminder To Me That I Control My Reality.

Now I've Been Promoted With A Huge Raise.
Which In Turn Helps Me In My Quest For The Burn.

Just Figured I'd Share My Quest.
I'll Update Every Now And Again If Any Other Awesome Things Happen!

[BBadger]

Great that you're working to fund your own burn and not begging for tickets as others will do later this year. $1.25/day will probably pay for a ticket. That's easily achievable by bagging a lunch for work, instead of eating out; making coffee at home instead of buying it (I use that justification to buy a nice grinder with the money I saved); etc.



But please.....


Stop Typing Like This. It Is Hard To Read, And I Hope You Used A Script To Do It Because It Took So Long For Me To Write This Sentence.

[Sham]

Back about 15 years ago, backs had what was called 'passbooks' which you brought to the back when you made a deposit. Having a hard passbook became impractical and they were dropped. These books allowed people to save money and see a log of how much was going in the bank. It was great at encouraging some serious saving. Some credit unions may still have these passbooks. You might consider looking into this as an effective way of saving some money for the burn. Keeping it in cash will only encourage the occasional borrowing from it.

Another thought is to try to get a credit card that could be used strictly for burn items and tickets.

Good luck on the mission and WELCOME to eplaya.

[Simon of the Playa]

this is the best kickstarter EVER.



i hope your box overflows.



no pun intended.

[ygmir]

[Drawingablank]

Great Idea.

[trilobyte]

I'm giving this a nudge over to the Q&A board since that's a better fit for general preparation discussions.

Good luck with your burn prep.

[Calamity2014]

I did not use A script To type it. I just normally type in all caps... Have for A long time. But i'll attempt to not do so for the board.
The box already has a lot of money in it. I can shake it and make A rough guess as to how much I've put in on any given week. I've also received a few donations to the box! The credit card idea is a good one... but, alas my credit isn't good enough for such things. Plus i'm not a big fan of plastic money... Makes spending to much a bit too easy.

[Elliot]

A piggy bank! What a revolutionary concept! How can it be that nobody has thought of this before!

[Calamity2014]

A REINFORCED piggy bank!
ANYONE can break ceramic!

[Savannah]

I did not use A script To type it. I just normally type in all caps... Have for A long time. But i'll attempt to not do so for the board.

. . . Thank you. It actually makes you much easier and faster to read, and allows your personality to come through in other ways.

Love the piggy bank, especially the stenciling.

If you have friends or family who purchase holiday gifts for you off of a wishlist, that's another good way to afford certain camping supplies. (I owe my beloved cot to Christmas 2008, and my lantern to Christmas 2011.)

[Elliot]

Ah ha! I can see the welds now.

[Lonesomebri]

At first read, as I made my way thru your post, I thought, wow, this cat is gonna try to sneak in inside a steel box, cool.
But upon finishing your explanation of your plan I think this might be even a better idea.

[peyote2004]

I love the idea.
I have one of those coin banks that counts the money when you put it in. that way, if I take it out, I have to remove the batteries to wipe the memory and take the time to sit and re-enter all the coins. Since we have $1 and $2 coins in Canada, the money adds up pretty fast.

I also have a bank account dedicated to Burning Man, but alas, I tend to dip into it when I'm short on funds I have been looking into a pre-paid credit card to use just for Burn stuff, but I won't do that until after Christmas, because I think dipping onto it will be too tempting.

[Calamity2014]

If you have friends or family who purchase holiday gifts for you off of a wishlist, that's another good way to afford certain camping supplies. (I owe my beloved cot to Christmas 2008, and my lantern to Christmas 2011.)

That's an AMAZING idea! Ima do that right this instant!

[pink]

I love this.....those who plan, burn! I hope your saving is going well. Don't forget you'll need a pre-paid card or debit card to buy your ticket.

[Calamity2014]

Thanks! So far it's going well. (Or so I presume, Can't see through the box!)
I just always make sure to drop significant money in at least 3 times a month. (along with various small amounts randomly.)
I'm buying my ticket separate from the Box which will make the 'opening' a tad bit more interesting.

[Elliot]

Did you see the chart Ygmir just posted on the Bar thread? It's on this page:

viewtopic.php?f=56&t=67779&start=1710

[Calamity2014]

Bah! That's Nifty!

[BBadger]

I love the idea.
I have one of those coin banks that counts the money when you put it in. that way, if I take it out, I have to remove the batteries to wipe the memory and take the time to sit and re-enter all the coins. Since we have $1 and $2 coins in Canada, the money adds up pretty fast.

I also have a bank account dedicated to Burning Man, but alas, I tend to dip into it when I'm short on funds I have been looking into a pre-paid credit card to use just for Burn stuff, but I won't do that until after Christmas, because I think dipping onto it will be too tempting.

With those coin dollars you could make your own programmable "piggy bank" to put money into.

On another note, I'm tempted to buy one of those mechanical parking meters on eBay and use that.